Anatoly Lein, an Émigré Chess Grandmaster, Dies at 86

Anatoly Lein, a Russian-born American chess grandmaster who was among the world’s top 30 players at his peak, won two of the most prestigious tournaments in the United States and recorded victories against some of the game’s greatest players, died Thursday in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He was 86.

A notice of his death was published by his family on Legacy.com. He died 13 days after the death of his wife.

Lein was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) on March 31, 1931. He learned to play chess at a young age and was inspired to get better after losing repeatedly to an older local boy. In a 2004 interview, he told The Cleveland Jewish News that he had taught himself to play by studying the intricacies of the game on his own.

Despite his passion for chess, Lein decided to pursue a standard education, studying math and physics in college and becoming an engineer. But chess continued to call, and he began to pursue it more seriously as an adult. There were certainly financial and social incentives.

Chess in the Soviet Union was state-supported, and top players could make a good living, treated the way sports stars were in the United States. Lein recalled that whenever he went to his favorite restaurant in St. Petersburg in the 1960s, there was always a bottle of cognac waiting at a table that had been reserved for him. People routinely asked him for his autograph.

Lein earned the international master title, the second highest in chess, from the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, in 1964. He became a grandmaster in 1968. At the time, there were only about 100 grandmasters. (Today, there are more than 1,200 on the federation’s list.)

A year later, according to unofficial rankings compiled by OlimpBase, a well-respected chronicler of the game’s history, Lein was tied for 24th in the world. In the official rankings of the federation, which began in 1971, he peaked at No. 38, in July 1973.

Lev Alburt, a Ukrainian-born grandmaster who defected to the United States in 1979 and won three U.S. Championships, called Lein “a true grandmaster” who brought an original approach to the game.

Lein was a formidable opponent. He recorded victories over Mikhail Tal (before Tal won the world championship) and Vasily Smyslov, who had been world champion and was still among the world’s elite. He also beat world championship contenders like David Bronstein, Lev Polugaevsky, Leonid Stein and Mark Taimanov.

Lein won the Moscow Championship in 1971 and international tournaments in Cuba and Hungary in 1972 and 1973. Despite his success, in 1976 he was given permission to emigrate to the United States. As he told The Jewish News, “You have to have lived in the USSR to understand why I emigrated.” He initially settled in New Jersey.

Lein became part of a leading edge of Eastern Bloc players who would soon flood the U.S. chess scene, profoundly influencing it throughout the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s.

Though Lein was past his peak when he emigrated — which may have been one reason the Soviet authorities allowed him to leave — he showed that he was still a formidable player. In 1976, he tied for first in the U.S. Open, one of the country’s most prestigious tournaments, with Leonid Shamkovich, another recent émigré.

The same year, he also tied for first in the World Open with Bernard Zuckerman. Two years later, Lein played for the United States on its Olympiad team. He was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2004.

While living in New Jersey, Lein won the state title each year from 1992 through 1995. He also met and married Barbara Gottlieb there, and they moved to Cleveland in 1998.

Barbara Lein, who had three children before she married Lein, died at 85 on Feb. 16.

Anatoly Lein is survived by his stepchildren, Aimee Gilman, Daniel Jacobson and Bill Jacobson, and four step-grandchildren.